


Rewriting Reality

by iluvaqt



Category: Black Panther (2018), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-04-29 14:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14474646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: Only one possible victory but first it requires sacrifice. Stephen Strange makes a visit to an old colleague, whom he will enlist to save the galaxy, but before that we will need to learn her story. How does a MetGen physician fit into the Infinity Stone battle?





	1. Post Captain America: Civil War end credits

Shuri loves her brother. He knows all her quirks and unconventional ideas and supports her interests. Every time their father or his council members had expressed doubt or opposition to her ideas or innovations, he spoke on her behalf that change and improvements weren’t something to fear. But there are also times where she wishes she could strangle him. Not enough to actually hurt him. Just enough so that he understands that she doesn’t just exist to fix things for him.

When he and Nakiya first broke up and he decided to run away from Wakana to follow her, she had to cover with their parents until Okoye could find him. 

Then when their father died, instead of coming straight home and accompanying their father’s body, he had exposed their technology and the Black Panther to the intelligence community by taking on Captain America in broad daylight. It was up to her to hack Berlin traffic surveillance and local law enforcement servers to delete any visual footage. They had advanced technology but even she knew better than to invite extra scrutiny and breech the CIA and CTC firewalls.

Now she had an enhanced human with traumatic conditioning and a missing arm in her care. And she was supposed to ‘fix’ him. To clarify this point, T’Challa had promised Captain America to ‘help’ his broken friend. When had she suddenly acquired a degree in psychology? She had genius level IQ according to a MENSA test she did online and had studied many different fields by distance education but she had never performed brain surgery. The absent arm was not a problem. They could build him a much better one than the previous adamantium model he lost. The problem was even if they did give him a new arm, he could use it to destroy the containment chamber like he had in Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Berlin.

They had superior diagnostic equipment. They had technicians who understood how to use all their surgical technology. Everything in Wakanda has been developed from their ever evolving understanding of vibranium. The only person who knew how to do traditional scalpel surgery was now retired and closing in on his 130th birthday, with hands as steady as a reed in Tis Abay. How was she support to fix something that didn’t manifest like a physical wound and without triggering the very issue they were trying to avoid?

As usual it was Okoye’s quiet wisdom and steadfast discipline that kept her from shaving T’Challa’s bear fluff in his sleep. He was so attached to that scruff on his face. Honestly, aside from the attention that being the girlfriend of the Prince, she thought her brother’s style sense was the other reason Nakiya had broken up with him. Who enjoyed beard rash, truly?

Okoye mentioned that she had met with a doctor in New York, when she had travelled there with King T’Chaka some years ago. He had seen a surgeon that he trusted. While the doctor herself was not from Wakanda, her mother had been. She was a Hatut Zeraze. She had been injured on a mission while undercover in New York. She fell in love with a nurse while she recovered. But when the King called her home, she left behind a baby girl. The girl grew up and knew nothing of her mother but that she was a strong girl from the Bronx with a kind heart.

Shuri tried to find out who the Hatut Zeraze was but Okoye said to leave it be. Once the mission was over, operatives rarely returned to their cover positions. And it was possible that the woman had not made contact with her daughter since. The doctor had certainly given no impression that she knew anything other than what the general population know of the reclusive African nation.

In considering making contact with the doctor, Shuri did some research on the outsider who her father had consulted. The doctor’s father was a semi-retired nurse. Working as a pro-bono in an out patient clinic in Brooklyn. The doctor herself worked as a senior physician in Neurology at Metro General Hospital. Before specialising in Neurology she had done her residency in Neurosurgery. Shuri thought it must have been her documented research into post-op recovery that caught her interest in the physiological path of healing. She had also published several articles in Medical America on holistic health and alternative therapies that would suit their case subject, that was if she was willing to hear their case and work without setting foot on Wakanda.

Her hand poised over her bracelet, she hesitated only briefly before establishing a secure line to interface with her online Skype account. Just one small step in a digital realm but one leap into the modern world. All to be the rock for her big brother. And yet, it was worth it just to see T’Challa smile. The older he got, the more rare the sight to see.


	2. Pre- Black Panther

Kurara Noguchi never forgot a name, nor a case. So when she got a Skype message with a callback request, stating the contact as the daughter of T’Chaka of Wakanda, she was intrigued.

She wasn’t the humanitarian her father was, but she liked to believe his example inspired her. While most people his age we’re enjoying around-the-world months long cruises, he was working to provide health care for low income families and the homeless. With her father in mind, she had taken T’Chaka’s case without any expectation that she would get paid. But he had paid for all his scans, herbal medication for his inflammation and drainage for an inoperable cyst. And that was the last she’d seen of him.

“Good afternoon, Miss Shuri. What is it you’d like to discuss with me?”

“Hypothetically, how difficult would it be to engage your expertise to treat a patient that suffers from PTSD and mental conditioning, remotely?”

Kurara leaned back in her chair and flicked her pen between her fingers. “I’ve worked with my fair share of WW2 Vets, along with more than a few Vietnam service men and and more recently police officers that fought in the alien attack on New York. If you can arrange active therapy sessions with MRI connectivity, it wouldn’t be an impossibility.”

“How soon could you start with diagnosis and treatment?”

“My schedule is booked up for the month, but I can commit to a review of all you can give me on the prospective patient by the end of next week. Then we can go from there.”

::: ::: :::

Masashi welcomed his weekly catch ups with his daughter. His only child. While he was happily married to his wife of the last ten years, he had been well beyond considering more children when they met. It had taken many years to get over the heartbreak of his youthful love affair with the mysterious African beauty he’d nursed back to health, after finding her stabbed and bleeding out in Hell’s Kitchen. Penny, his wife, couldn’t be more different than his foreign lover. With her fair skin and flame red hair, she couldn’t pass for Kurara’s birth mother, no matter how the two cared for each other. For years he had searched for his daughter’s mother. At first out of his own longing and desperation over her disappearance. Then only for answers and with hope for a mother for his little angel. Or even just a hint of truth, so she would have something of her mother. Then an answer had come in the most unexpected of ways. Kurara had discovered her first loose tooth, and in begging her father to help deal with the fright of having a twisted tooth, he had seen strange markings inside her lip as she held her little mouth open, so he could pull the bottom tooth free.

Even quietly enquiringly through a private investigator, his discovery led to a shocking confrontation. A warrior woman with a frighteningly sharp looking spear showed up on his doorstep. He had a choice. Stop his quest or surrender the child. Wakanda did not accept outsiders but they would care for their own. It was their way. Masashi would not give up his daughter, so he promised to cease his search. At least now he had a place of origin.

When Kurara mentioned that she had not only treated a wealthy man from Wakanda, one of the poorest nations in the world, but that his daughter was now wanting to engage her as a consultant, he was both curious and concerned. Why after all these years were not just, one but two individuals from her mother’s homeland, visiting her? And how could they afford it? Although from his midnight visit, he had begun to suspect that there was a lot more to Wakandans than the world knew about.

He sighed deeply and took his daughter’s hands across the table. “My little doe, always so helpful. Swift and gentle. I never told you much about your mother because there wasn’t a lot to tell. We have few photographs and I am not sure the name she gave me was even her real name. But I do know where she came from and I should have shared that with you long ago. Those strange marks we never talk about, why you’ve never been to the dentist— it’s part of your DNA. It comes from your mother and is common for all the descendants of the citizens of Wakanda. Maybe you should ask this young woman, Shuri, the next time you speak.”


	3. Pre- Black Panther part 2

Wakanda is a beautiful place. A unique paradise blending a mesh of traditional African culture and cutting edge modern architecture. She had been blindfolded for several hours after they crossed into African waters. It was stifling to breathe but they kept her hydrated through a straw and offered her bathroom breaks and snacks.

Even after disembarking off what felt like a helicopter-like transport jet, and finding her legs again after being seated so long, she could tell that she was somewhere very different. There was a vibe of energy pressing against her skin, if felt light but powerful. The air was warm, clean and invigorating, better than any quality she had ever breathed. Not that she got out of the city much with it’s mould, stale, exhaust and smoke smells, to even make a well versed comparison.

After a long walk, still hooded, up and down stairs, a trip in a whisper quiet lift and into an area that whooshed and whirred like a lab, she was finally uncovered. The windows were whited out but the lack of scenery was made up for by the various array of technology and instruments that she’d never seen before.

Shuri was smiling at her excitedly in welcome. “I hope you had a safe journey, I’d apologise for the secrecy but you agreed to it before you made the trip.”

“We made a deal. I could meet my mother, in exchange I help with your case and never share any of what I might see or learn.”

The young woman nodded. “I will show you to your patient. Let’s begin shall we?”

It took days to work out a method that didn’t involve heavy sedation, every time they triggered his conditioning. Two near escapes, several broken containment pods (she was so happy that they had nano-technology, it made repairs so much less cumbersome and time consuming), and one fractured wrist, and they’d finally mapped all the problem areas of James Barnes’ brain.

Then came the treatment options. Shuri seemed impressed with her progress and made a side comment about being grateful she had not gone with her first impulse to fix the man and give him a new arm. He was plenty strong enough and enhanced without it. Their patient healed quickly, and had strength to match T’Challa even with his Black Panther power. He also had obvious martial training. His fighting skill had enabled him to outmaneuver all the guards that they had stationed at the exits of the lab. 

When escape through the passage hadn’t proven successful, he’d tried breaking the lab glass to the mines. He’d knocked himself out doing that. According to Shuri, the glass was shielded on the outside from possible vibranium disruption from the trains, or from a mine collapse, it had happened once before in their early years of industrialised mining. 

Yet while he had broken the glass, the shock from the energy shield had rendered him unconscious.

::: ::: :::

Treatment was tricky and slow going. After understanding where the triggers were in his brain, and the words associated, Dr. Noguchi wanted to explore each word in isolation, and what they meant to their patient. 

Shuri was keen to watch the doctor and her progress, the woman was obviously well educated but open to learning from her as well. Shuri was only too ready to share, not often having people within her social sphere to interact with, let alone showed an interest in her work. While Kurara was no warrior, easily being cast aside by the broken soldier, she was resilient and tougher than she looked. She was also surprisingly fast with a pressurized disbursement injector.

Barnes had opened up as the days wore on into weeks and the weeks, months. In the privacy of her lab, with the quiet hum of the magnetised train tracks and the sprawling landscape of Wakanda before them, they learned that each word in that red Hydra book brought up a extremely traumatic experience until the sum of all words caused a conscious mental retreat and a conditioned psyche to come out. They also learned that by spacing out the traumatic event experience, they could prevent the conditioning from taking over.

With repetitive short exposure, spacing out the triggers over days and then hours, till the White Wolf (he’d earned a name for himself with all his escape/trigger/trauma episodes) was in control and fully aware of his actions. He confessed that while he did remember who he hurt or killed as the Winter Soldier, he wasn’t aware of what was happening or why. 

Shuri had asked Dr. Noguchi, if Barnes’ Hydra conditioned episodes could be like a hypnotic dream state. In which he was a watcher, and less an active participant. 

::: ::: :::

The young Princess’ question had unsettled Kurara. While she hadn’t agreed or disagreed at the time, she felt that the more she delved into James Barnes’ broken psyche, the more emotionally entangled she became. It was difficult to remain detached and professionally objective. He’d been subjected to the worse kinds of torment, physical, psychological and emotional. His oppressors had used both electrical and drug induced conditioning therapies to break his grip on reality and shatter his fighting spirit. It hurt her to know that even with all he had survived he still blamed himself for the acts they had forced him to commit and worse let the guilt dampen his desire to live. There were days where he believed he didn’t deserve to have survived. That he didn’t deserve their help or protection. 

She had witnessed and experienced first hand, that he was well trained, motivated and dangerous. He had taken lives. There was more than one government would want him locked up, possibly even confined to some Black Ops site to be held without trial and disappear forever. Objectively, she knew that he would need constant monitoring and therapy. Perhaps for the rest of his life, and yet in learning more about him, she wanted a different life for him. One where he truly would be free. 

She knew that she couldn’t continue in her professional capacity much longer, when during a late afternoon session she had excused herself early because she couldn’t keep her emotions in check. He’d grown quiet, distant, as he was often prone to do when he was taken by a vivid disturbing memory. She let them transport him. He needed time and a safe place to process. She only jolted him to the present reality if his facial ticks or fingers showed signs excessive distress. 

All of a sudden he’d exhaled deeply and fixed her with a piercing gaze. He’s baby blues cut her right to the heart. It was near impossible for her to form a rational train of thought when he looked at her like that. His eyes were such a stark contrast to his dark hair and stood out under the shadow of his thick lashes and coffee brown brows. Normally he was hesitant, nervous, or perhaps even shy to make eye contact. She finally found words to say to break the silent ocular standoff but he spoke before she could. He gave her an apology and she was taken aback. He was sorry for hurting her. 

It was something that had happened months before and there wasn’t any lingering damage or stiffness that remained. She had even forgotten that she’d been hurt. The injury occurred during a violent outburst in response to the perceived threat of triggering a full blown conditioning episode. It had been on the first day she’d wanted him awake and fully lucid without any mood inhibitors. He had been desperate to escape. In review of the circumstances, she realised the situation would have seemed identical to his arrest and activation in Berlin.

He’d broken out of containment, knocked out four guards, and hit her out of the way with a spear before Shuri had taken him down with one of her electro-beads. Kurara was shocked he even remembered what he had done, it had happened so fast.

In the week following his apology, she took a full day to evaluate herself and the progress of her patient. With determined professionalism she recommended to Shuri and T’Challa that he be moved away from the lab setting and out of the city. Presenting her case that less sitmulus and a rural environment would hasten the healing and balance of his nervous system.

Putting him outside and on his own to self sustain, meant that she could distance herself too. Hearing his voice, studying his eyes and face for genuine response and his emotional cues was doing things to her heart and mind. She often found herself staring a little too long at the scars on his hands, arm and shoulders. Embarrassingly, she caught her fingers lingering at his temples as she brushed back his hair to attach electrodes. She was feeling and thinking things that had no place in her professional capacity.

“You done with me now, Doc?” he asked with a half smile. He had finished bundling the last of his few belongings into the hut they had set up for him. He stood outside, dressed in a robe much like the tribal men that lived in a nearby village. It was as close to blending in as he could be with his fair skin and long flat hair. Just the tiniest twitch of his mouth, and she understood what he felt but wouldn’t say. That small quirk spoke of his fear of hanging on to lighter moments. Of feelings. Of being hopeful.

“You’re doing much better than you hoped. Better than I thought I could help you to be. I have outstayed my welcome. I don’t belong here. Even if they haven’t been pushy or unfriendly about it.” She patted his shoulder and quickly retreated, feeling that familiar stirring in her stomach. The feeling that she knew wasn’t from lunch but an uncomfortable longing that she couldn’t afford to explore.

“I’m an outsider. More so than you. I heard you met your mother?”

Kurara smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners while she shared in his burst of positivity but knowing inside that learning the truth had only given her grief and more questions that wouldn’t be answered. “Shuri talks too much.”

She found herself mesmerised by his laugh in response to her assessment of the lively and outspoken Princess. 

“I’d say that phrase is accurate but doesn’t truly encapsulate her ability to disseminate information,” he said, his tone still wavering with the sounds of his obvious humor.

How did the sound of joy in his voice have the power to arrest her? How was it possible for one to forget to breathe? When he laughed his whole face changed, his eyes pinched in a upward tilt, he had deep smile lines that were nonexistent in his resting face and his smile was near blinding in its brilliance, all pearly whites and warmth. No one had ever made her feel this way before.

“You won’t stay?” He had grown somber, his face relaxing but not in a heartening way. He was asking but already braced for her reply.

“This time will be good for you. When was the last time you had space, all to yourself? No threats, no orders, just time to breathe and rest? Real rest. Let the earth run through your fingers and toes, work the ground and see the reward of labouring for your own meal from plants you grew and heal, Bucky. I promise, someday you’ll think it was not enough time.”

He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles like a gallant gentleman of old. It was moments like that, that reminded her of the fact that he grew up in a different era. That he had served in a war against her father’s country men but held no grudges against her for her heritage. He’d survived wars, torture, freeze and thaws, year after year and after all that he had been able to fight his way back, to reclaim the man he once was, before Hydra and Soviet prisons.

As he released her hand, she was sure her blush rendered her tan skin a ruddy irregular hue. He made her feel like a school girl nursing a crush. She wasn’t 14 anymore. Her responses defied logic. But when was attraction logical? 

“Look after yourself,” she ordered with an attempt to look stern. He wasn’t buying it.

“You too, Doc.” 

“It’s Kurara. You’re not just a patient to me.”

He gave her a reflective look, his eyes and posture betrayed his surprise. “I’m glad,” he said his tone gently teasing, his eyes lifting as he grinned. “I was beginning to think Steve really had rendered me invisible.”

She smiled at his teasing but it was tempered quickly as she remembered his guilt, anger and pain where his childhood friend was concerned. While she knew without a shadow of doubt that Bucky loves Steve. Would protect him with his life...there was still a deep rooted fear that it would some day require a sacrifice he wasn’t sure he’d survive. He didn’t fear dying, but he did fear captivity. He’d been a prisoner twice, both times had left their share of scars but through his therapy, Bucky had come to realise where his fear came from and how to process it. It was a work in progress.

She felt a light caress against her cheek.

“Someone with such a beautiful soul shouldn’t ever cry.”

Kurara realized her cheek was wet where he’d brushed her tears. “I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t.” She smiled broadly but her lips trembled, and her eyes shimmered with more tears that threatened to fall. She was supposed to be coaching him. Helping him. Not the reverse. “Never feel less for your fears. You’re human because of them. And the love and sacrifices you made readily for your family and your country are what attracted me to you in the first place. Your scars are what make up the man you are today. My opinion doesn’t count for much but he’s one impressive man to me.” She held his shoulders tenderly and pressed a feather light kiss to his cheek. “I need to go.”

“Maybe you can come back, check up on me sometime? I heard there’s a harvest festival in a couple months. I can repay you for taking care of my old bones and we could go dancing.”

Kurara shook her head and shoved her hands in her coat pockets for a lack of anything else to keep them from betraying her restlessness, from resisting to touch him further. “I’ll see what I can do, but I’d bring a pair of steel toed shoes if I were you. I’ve been told I’m a terrible dancer.”

“Finally something I can teach you,” he said with a bow of dramatic flare. “I look forward to it, Kurara.”

The way he said her name, his baritone a caress on her already rapidly firing nerves, made her skin yearn to be touched and her knees weak. It took effort, like wading though rushing water to move herself away. She walked across the field in the direction of the city, coaching herself against acting on her baser impulses, which were clambering for her to do something reckless like run over and kiss him thoroughly. ‘Do it in the name of science,’ the rebel girl in her cried. Kurara balled her fists in her coat and keep walking. She had a strong suspicion that he wouldn’t rebuff her assault of his person and she wouldn’t end up leaving at all. He was still watching her when she turned to look back from the top of the hill. He raised his hand in farewell and she did the same. 

That goodbye was two years ago.


	4. Avengers: Infinity War (Rewriting Reality)

Dr. Stephen Strange had always been a reclusive, aloof sort. His accident and subsequent retirement from practice had only made him more so. Finding him in her office looking more than a bit disheveled, dressed in impressive sorcery cosplay wasn’t an interaction she had ever envisioned them having.

“I need your help.”

Kurara blinked. It must be a Thursday. Strange things always happened on a Thursday. And now she was punning. Her brain really did pick off moments to interject humour. Perhaps not so strange though. Humour did alleviate stress. She was certainly feeling out of sorts. After the scene she had just witnessed as she left the parking garage, of enormous Stargate alien ship hovering over the bay, Strange’s costume was the least of her concerns. In the past hour she had barely had time to stop and take a breath. She had escaped Triage for five minutes, just to eat something that could serve as the breakfast she hadn’t had time to get.

“What can I do for you?” 

Normally she would be hesitant to offer those words. It required commitment and time, of which she had little to spare at the present. But being her former colleague and a well respected doctor in his field, it overrode some of her more reserved inner arguments and she let her innate curiosity respond instead.

“I need to get to Wakanda.”

“And what makes you think I can help with that?” She arched a well shaped eyebrow at him and squeezed her chair backrest in an attempt to redirect the tension that suddenly gathered in her spine, at the mention of the country of her recently discovered heritage.

“Your mother was N’Yami, Queen of Wakanda.”

Kurara felt the blood drain from her face. 

That knowledge was not public. When King T’Chaka had made a request of the Masu Tribe Elder, for the hand of his daughter in marriage to solidify bonds between the tribes, N’Yami’s father had agreed. She was recalled from her duties in the close study of foreign economic trade and border protection and left New York behind. They were married within a month and she died in childbirth within a year. 

N’Yami, a former War Dog and spy for Wakanda and her mother, had became a queen. T’Challa was her half-brother. Yet, she wanted no part in ruling. Learning the truth of her mother from the most unexpected of sources, Shuri’s mother, she wanted the truth of her lineage to remain buried as it had been in the past.

“I will make a call, that is all I can promise you.”

::: ::: ::: 

Several hours later she was making a very different journey to Wakanda. It seemed since joining the UN, the governing council and Wakanda’s ruling King had relaxed the secrecy surrounding the powerful nation.

Two years on and there were no blindfolds and no armed guard escort on this trip. She was brought directly to the lab with no fanfare and only a brief nod in greeting from T’Challa. Granted they had spent most of the flight over in conference with Bruce Banner, a respected biophysicist also known as The Hulk and Dr. Strange, both men filling in T’Challa and herself of the outer worldly threat that was coming to kill off half the universe. In light of their circumstances, she could forgive him for not having time for pleasantries.

There was an android alien looking entity on the examination table overlooking the area she had once used to treat another patient but that wasn’t the subject that immediately caught her eye.

“Bucky?” She crossed the room to the passage where he’d been waiting in the shadows and threw her arms around him. He had always been a quiet presence in a room. Preferring to observe and escape notice. Knowing him now, she would never not pick him out in a room. Her first impression at seeing him well and sporting an new arm no less, and she forgot that there was anyone else in the room and the reason she was there in the first place. Her logical brain soon caught up to her impulsive actions and she felt the eyes of everyone else on her. The weight of her uncharacteristic display settled over her and she suddenly felt embarrassed.

She pulled back just as swiftly as she’d tackled him but before she could escape to a respectable distance, Bucky had captured her hand and brought her fingers to his lips. “I’m happy to see you too,” he said with a teasing wink.

She noticed Steve -Captain America- from the corner of her eye giving them a knowing smile of approval and she felt flustered. This man holding her hand in a comfortable but unyielding grasp was no good for her blood pressure. He oozed a confidence that was only hinted at when last they saw each other and his charm which he now turned on her with the full force of his intense eyes and warm smile melted her brain. Reassured by the genuine affection in his gaze, she smiled back and fondly squeezed his hand. It seemed the lingering impressions he’d left on her heart were imprinted on his own too.

“From what Stephen told me, we are short on time. So let’s get to work. I will see you after you all save the world from a Mad Titan.” She flashed Bucky a shy smile, the blush still staining her cheeks but his twinkling eyes made her smile more widely and he reluctantly let her draw away to the table where Vision lay waiting.

Drawing on her expertise, she was able to reroute Vision’s neural pathways much faster than Shuri would have done alone. While the young woman was a quick study, yet she didn’t have the years of training that Kurara had or the knowledge. 

They were able to destroy the stone within the confines of the lab. While the blowback destroyed all the glass within its explosive radius, the shields that surround the building had contained the energy.

Dr. Strange’s plan to remain hidden until Thanos appeared from his Space gate and engage their forces on the ground was a sound one. According to Strange, he had allowed his double to surrender his Time Stone so that he would be able to rewrite a new timeline and defeat Thanos for good. All the Stones needed to be destroyed together and he didn’t have the ability to do that himself on Titan. 

They needed Wanda and the power of Thor, channelled through his new hammer, Stormbreaker.

Like any powerful tool, in the wrong hands it could be used to destroy. The Stones once believed to have created the Galaxy, would be it’s ultimate destruction in the hands of Thanos or his like.

They had to be destroyed. 

She had read the conflict with in Strange’s eyes. He’d been charged with the Time Stone’s protection. His predecessors had lived and died in that service. He had too if you could wrap your mind around alternate realities. She wondered if he could destroy it when the time came. And there she went again with the puns.

As she swept up glass, Shuri’s nano-tech having repaired all the damage but not the mess, she kept herself busy and resisted surrendering to the temptation to watch the battle from the window. Had she been preoccupied with watching, she wouldn’t have been prepared for the appearance of an intruder. Thankfully her startled cry, alerted Shuri and her step-sister defended her from a blow that would have killed her, had she been alone. After destroying the stone, both Vision and Wanda had joined the fight on the ground but Wanda quickly returned sensing their attacker and happily relieved them of the threat.

A Bifrost tore across the sky and in a blaze of light and thunder, Thor joined the battle. The surreal event of a man flying without any visible propulsion, directing lightening like a live wire whip was enough to rivet her attention and cause her heart to tighten in her chest in fear of what was to happen next. It wouldn’t be long now.

::: ::: :::

 

Dr. Strange’s used a surprise attack to immobilised Thanos in a time warp - entrapping the two together. He couldn't use sorcery, the Titan's power over space and reality made that method useless. He only had the power of time against time and his wits. He had to out-think the Titan. A tact that he’d used against his nemesis of destruction three years ago while he’d barely finished his training with the Ancient One. 

The moment he released the time loop, in a pre-arranged, coordinated attack; Bucky had restrained Thanos’ free arm, Wanda had temporarily blinded him with an energy blast to the face and Steve had severed the gauntlet from his forearm with a Jabari vibranium sword. Briefed on the plan by Vision, who’d caught up to the Thunderer in the air during the battle, Thor wasted no time exacting retribution for the death of his brother and the surviving Asgardian refugees that Thanos had killed without mercy. 

With a charged stroke of his axe, Thor buried his weapon in Thanos’ chest.

Dr. Strange then opened his medallion and placed it on top of the gauntlet.

“Destroy it!”

Thor and Wanda directed all their power at the Stones and the destruction of the Stones under the combined mutated Space Stone energy of Wanda’s attack blast and Thor’s ancient star enhanced lightening knocked everyone off their feet. When the dust settled, all that remained was twisted, scorched metal and blackened, brittle rock. The power they once held was no more.

::: ::: :::

What seemed like hours, but was possibly only minutes later, they felt the explosion. It was far stronger than Kurara had prepared herself for and when it rocked the building, she stumbled, unable to catch herself. The glass already weakened by previous energy disruptions, shattered under the force of her fall. A sharp scream tore from her throat while she madly clutched at air and she would have fallen down the mountain face had Nakiya not used a whip to encircle her waist and pull her to safety. The earthquake caused by all the energy backlash had resulted in mass structural damage and once she was safely back in the lab she knew by the look Shuri’s face that they had to leave. 

Nakiya ordered the mountain to be evacuated and lead a charge to ensure that all exits were open and clear from enemy troops so that wouldn’t stop their people from escaping the mines.

Shuri and Kurara had less than two minutes to reach a hanger deck before the support beams and unpiloted crafts fell, mounts cracking free from the destabilised cavern and collapsing onto the many train tracks below. Shuri shut down the transports but not quickly enough to avoid one train from being hit by the debris. The impact against the raw vibranium reacted and further destabilised the mountain. The entire area folded in on itself, the energy blow back almost knocked their ship from the sky.

The fighting had only momentarily ceased after Thanos had been stripped of his power. As he lay dying, most of his remaining forces battled on, even as some fled.

Shuri wasn’t one to sit out a fight without good reason and soon targeted the enemy ships that had remained standing, to prevent retreat.

Thanos’ war machines had decimated more of his creatures than their forces had, Wanda having turned the machines against them with her kinetic energy. 

The combined efforts of Thor and the Wakandan forces and Captain America’s team overwhelmed and herded what remained of Thanos’ army. The loss of Wakandan lives was severe but not as terrible as it would have been for the Galaxy had Thanos succeeded in his plan.

After the rebellion of Erik Killmonger and now this invasion, and the collapse of the mines, Shuri shared her concern over the council’s response to her brother’s leadership. Under their father and forefathers the country had enjoyed peace and prosperity. Any disagreements settled by a majority council vote or at the King’s Challenge Day. But when they landed and began treatment of the wounded using the supplies onboard, any thought for the concerns for tomorrow where chased away by caring for the injured.

Kurara found Bucky half carrying Steve with his metal arm, both men limping and struggling along. Their fatigue and injuries hampering their every step, she knew it was only stubborn will and pride keeping them vertical. She quickly took over supporting Steve and urged Bucky to walk ahead.

Once she had cleared a space for them to sit and lean against the side of the ship, she then activated the diagnosic bead on the bracelet Shuri had given her, when she had first accepted the job to treat Bucky. The same bracelet that had been locked in her safe at home until Stephen Strange had made a visit to her office.

“A mild concussion, which on anyone else would have been a severe one that could have led to bleeding on the brain.” She gave Bucky a stern look, and he had the audacity to give her a tired but toothy grin. 

“War wounds, dear lady.”

“A dislocated shoulder. How do you manage that with an artificial arm? Actually it’s no surprise, over strain and any of my orthopaedic colleagues would have snorted at my expense at the oversight. A broken foot— how are you still walking?” She lasered off his shoe which immediately caused his foot to swell. “Gently Ookami kun, it had to be done.”

It took her only a minute to splint it. His foot taken care of for the moment, she searched his eyes for readiness as she braced him to set his shoulder. He met her eyes with the strangest expression on his face. To her it looked like he was both baffled and amused.

“What did you call me just then?”

Kurara pushed and pulled his shoulder back into place quickly and sat back. 

Bucky hissed at the rough treatment but he didn’t seem deterred from pursuing an answer. He raised a dark eyebrow at her. Smirking, while he studied her expectantly. 

She nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and lowered her eyelashes in mortification, berating herself inwardly for letting her secret endearments slip out. In her head, he was the White Wolf, her shy Wolf, a cute Wolf, a fierce Wolf... always a Wolf. Either a hunter of prey or a loyal, strong protector of his pack. 

“Ah it means Wolf,” she muttered softly.

Bucky grinned widely. “I got that part, I did learn a little Japanese during the war but also in anticipation of more less formal conversations with you.” He lifted her chin so she would meet his eyes again. “I meant the -kun, it’s normally in expression of fondness, am I wrong?”

She shook her head.

“Why didn’t you come back?”

He implied her no show for the festival more than a year ago now. He didn’t have to spell it out for her, she had made enquiries to his progress through Shuri but she had never returned, until now. “I wasn’t ready to acknowledge how I feel...”

“And now?”

She heard the hope in his voice, read it in his eyes. “End of reality as we know it. There were extenuating circumstances and I...

“Quit fishing, Buck. The lady likes you, just take her to dinner already.”

Bucky groaned and shot Steve a sour look. “You’re one to talk, Captain Oblivious. Tortoises move faster than you. How long do you think Romanoff is going wait for you to get a clue.”

“But she’s into Banner.” 

He didn’t sound so sure of that. And if Bucky was referring to the platinum blonde, Kurara had to agree with him. No one took up a life on the lam when they had a choice otherwise. 

“How many years has she been covering your ass again?

Steve made a strangled sound and his face turned an uncomfortable shade of red. She moved across to check him over. His face was covered in sweat and he was clammy to the touch, he winced as she touched his cheeks and neck lightly.

“I should have asked you first,” she said sitting back on her heels. “Where does it hurt?” She knew he would have used every skill and reserve of energy to fight but his symptoms spoke of more than frustration at his childhood friend and exhaustion. A full scan with her bracelet showed more than 80% of the pain centers in his brain were lit up like the 4th of July. 

Bucky thumbed in Steve’s direction. “Pretty sure he’s got whiplash and a couple pinched nerves in his neck from when he took on one of the bigger warrior aliens solo. And his armour is covering up all the bite wounds he’s trying to pretend aren’t there.”

“Shut up.”

“Just give the tough guy routine a rest, Steve. Let the lady do her thing. He’ll say no to pain meds. Likes to think he’s invincible because of the Serum. Was stubborn that way before it too. Never knew when to quit a fight. If he starts being difficult, I’ll knock him out for you. He’s a terrible patient.”

“Why are we friends again?

“Because there’s no one else who’ll put up with your jack-ass antics.”

“Sam’s my friend,” Steve muttered somewhat sulkily.

Bucky just chuckled and Kurara shook her head at both of them. Did boys ever grow up? And to think, they could both be so charming when they wanted. As she cut away his outer suit, she could easily see the lacerations all over his body, claw marks on his back and thighs and bites marks on his shoulders and upper arms. Using an antiseptic spray from her kit, she cleaned and wiped down all the wounds she could access without moving him too much.

“How did you manage to avoid the same?” she asked of Bucky.

“Perks of having vibranium armour and an artificial arm,” he said with a shrug, which caused him to wince when he jostled his sore shoulder. “Steve could use an upgrade. He’s still in his old Avenger get. He forms unhealthy attachments to things.”

“I was laying low, kind of on a tight budget. They don’t exactly stock body armour at Walmart, genius.” 

”And yet, I noticed Nat had the sense to take a skin suit from Shuri to wear under her clothes. 

Kurara growled at both of them, when it looked like they were going to do something stupid and start a scuffle. Hadn’t they burned off enough testosterone for one day? She felt Steve’s neck and put a stabilising collar on him just to be safe. She had cut away most of his suit, so she gave him a vibranium nano-compression suit to help manage his pain and support his circulation. There were several of these neck chains in the MediPak. It was similar to the Black Panther suit design without the offensive capability. Instead of absorbing and storing energy, it focused the body’s subtle energy inwards, encouraging efficient circulation and oxygen distribution in the cells. With Steve patched, she crouched back beside Bucky.

“Well if you’re ready to move, I’d like to get you in a cast. Can you stand?”

“Looks like I won’t be able to take you dancing for awhile yet.”

Kurara smiled. “I’ve seen you in recovery, Bucky. You’ll be doing salsa around me in no time.”

“I think I prefer when you call me, Ookami-kun,” he offered with a teasing grin and a wink.

“If you say so, White Wolf,” she snorted, blatantly ignoring his suggestive request. He was only her sweet wolf-kun if he behaved himself. He had been rude to Steve and he was teasing her. She wouldn’t call him charming.

Bucky pushed himself to standing and brushed himself off. “It’ll be awhile till I can manage any kind of dancing, but I can offer you dinner. My place, if it’s still standing. They sort of did come at us from everywhere,” he said actually taking in the full scope of the damage around them. “But the offer’s open, if you’re interested,” he said catching her eyes again as he tugged her closer.

Kurara pressed close to his side, her forehead lightly rested against his throat, where she could feel his pulse beating fast and strong. She breathed him in, feeling his warmth and his scent, grateful he was alive. That they both were. “It sounds like a good beginning.”

Bucky smiled and kissed her thick hair that shone blue in the midday sun. He shared a look of contentment and gratitude with Steve over her head. “A new beginning,” he responded his voice gruff.

This day had begun with a dawn of fear but had turned into a reason for hope. He had been a broken soldier once, little more than a human weapon, but she had helped him rediscover how to be whole. How to reclaim his humanity and his heart. And with a little more time, perhaps he would convince her to stick around for good.


	5. The Tribal Council

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to interest into my quest to give Bucky some happiness, this is turning out to be longer than the four chapters I initially planned. There may be more yet... time and inspiration will tell. Thank you for the support. :)

The landscape that was once an open plain of hardy grasses and wild wheat bordered by centuries old trees and brush had been torn up, bloodied and broken. 

The people mourned. Many of the Jabari and the Border Tribe warriors had suffered serious wound, some would never fight again and hundreds of Wakandan lives were lost. Not only during the ground battle, but in the collapse of the mine and in the spy’s infiltration into her lab to attack what they must have traced as the Mind Stone’s last known position. 

M’Baku had lost the sight of one eye and stubborn in his traditional beliefs, refused to have Shuri fit him with an artificial one.

As she had feared, the Ruling Council were angry. While not all of them had suffered a direct impact from Thanos’ invasion, when one Wakandan feel, all mourned the loss. They wanted answers. T’Challa had to bring Dr. Strange before the council to explain everything in detail. Vision was requested as well. It was the hope of preserving his life that had brought them to Wakanda. 

“Under your direction we allowed our borders to be open to outsiders, to share our knowledge and resources. And yet, it is our duty first and foremost to serve the Wakandan people. You did not allow The Council the opportunity to vote on this decision. And it cost us in blood.”

“And it would have cost much more had this had Thanos’ completed his mission,” Nakiya interjected, in response to her father’s disapproval of T’Challa’s leadership.

“My Queen,” T’Challa said in a cautionary tone, but with his eyes he showed gratitude for her support. “The damage done to Mena Ngai is severe but it is not something that cannot be recovered. Wakana is strong, we have suffered famines, diseases, pestilence, threats to our borders before. We survive and we endure. And I am open to suggestions as to how we can better protect Wakanda in future.”

“The Jabari are a part of Wakana, T’Challa. I accept that and we will always fight for its continued prosperity, but your ways are not our ways. I do not vote on your Council, but I am grateful to be allowed a voice. I mean no disrespect to your outsider friends, and while I believe that the cause was just, I am against allowing any outsiders to seek refuge in Wakanda for any reason.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from Shuri and Okoye had to silence her with a look from speaking out. M’Buka only said what many already believed.

“I cannot turn away our aid to those who mean us no harm. However with respect to the Council’s concerns, I offer an amendment to our open border alliance with the United Nations. I wish to commission a Refugee Liaison Officer under the direction of the River Tribe to oversee the subject of refugee admission. My Queen has spoken at length the needs of our brothers and sisters that live beyond our borders, of their suffering and injustice. I give full authority to her to act in this new role. Refugee status will be granted or denied by the Council for anyone the River Tribe deems a threat to our people. The Border Tribe will continue in their current capacity of screening visitors requesting to cross our borders.”

Shuri slumped. It was by no means a perfect solution to international relations or a fail safe against future threats but at least now they had due process. The council had to be happy with that concession.

No one gave a word of disagreement but there was much disgruntled murmuring. 

“A vote on this ruling of your King in support of this endeavour?”

The hands were slow in rising but they got a majority vote. 

Nakiya had the difficult position of having to tell Shuri that it had been decided by the Council as their first ruling under the new law that James Barnes had to leave. He was a person of interest by multiple intelligence agencies and a known terrorist for the attack on SHIELD.

::: ::: :::

Kurara was humming to herself when Shuri entered the lab in a foul mood. She was grumbling loudly to herself and pacing. All of a sudden, she yelled so loudly and smacked a workbench that Kurara dropped then stack of folders she had been carrying.

Film scans and case notes when fluttering all over. Shuri immediately bent to help.

“These are Barnes’ files,” Shuri said with a frown.

Kurara tucked her hair behind her ear and quickly gathered the folders together. “With everything that has happened we both concluded that he may have overstayed his welcome. Neither of us want to make it difficult for T’Challa to rule. It’s not an easy job to be King. I think it’s probably impossible to have friends. To think of the needs of your friends I mean. He has to think of his people first.”

“You’re family,” Shuri argued. “You are my blood.”

A light blush coloured high on her cheekbones. “But James isn’t.”

“It is James now?”

Kurara laughed, her eyes sparkling and she playfully pushed Shuri, the young woman falling on her bottom as Kurara stood up. “I refused to call him Wolf in pubic, so he insisted.”

“That’s a big step in your culture, no?”

She shook her head. “In my father’s eyes yes, but I grew up saturated by American culture. First name interaction is the social norm.”

“But not in your professional life or under your father’s influence,” Shuri teased. “So will you have a binding ceremony before you leave?”

Kurara almost lost her grip on her folders again. She crushed the stack to her chest as her heart thundered behind her ribs and her blood rushed in her ears. “We’ve had a few dates, and I...”

“I’m kidding. But T’Challa and Nakiya had their ceremony two months after she returned. When you know, you know.” She shrugged and grew reflective, her face serious. “Not everyone have the choice to choose out of love.”

Kurara put her hand on Shuri’s shoulder. She understood what she meant. Their mothers were sisters. When N’Yumi died from postpartum hemorrhage. Her younger sister, Ramonda married the king and became a surrogate mother to T’Challa. Like the king’s first marriage it was a political arrangement. At first it was a marriage in name only. Ramonda said that it was her love for T’Challa that drew respect from T’Chaka and that grew into love and by the time she fell pregnant with Shuri years later, the Queen Mother said the marriage was a happy and successful one. Ramonda loved her sister. And had been happy to learn that N’Yumi lived on through her children. According to her aunt, Kurara had her mother’s eyes, her smile and her love of people. Kurara knew the latter was strongly attributed to her father also but it was nice to know that she inherited more than just physical attitudes from her mother.

She moved toward the window and promptly put her stack on a nearby table. The lab in Mena Ngai had been destroyed in the mountain’s collapse but Shuri had access to science and research facilities in every fortress in Wakanda. The lab/workplace she had established in Birnin Zana was by far the largest. It also had sweeping floor to ceiling windows. Most of them did. Looking down she became aware of how high she was and gripped the structural steel beam nearby, suddenly unable to move backward or move anywhere really.

Shuri noticed her posture and drew her away from the window. They backed up until Kurara slid to the floor, her back pressed against the curved workstation. 

“I’ve never fallen out of a window before but it will get better right?” the young princess asked.

Kurara trembled. “At the time, I didn’t even have time to think about anything. I’m trying to process through it but heights just paralyse me now.” She laughed in a self depreciating tone. “The therapist that can’t heal her own mind.”

“I heard every therapist needs a therapist.”

She said it so matter of factly that Kurara had to crack a real smile. Then she laughed till she felt wetness on her cheeks. She embraced Shuri with one arm and put her head on her shoulder. “I’m going to miss you.”

“Well you know where I’ll be and I don’t care what they say, if you ever need help, I’ll be there.”

Kurara hugged her proper then. “We don’t share a mother like T’Challa and I, but I think of you as my sister too, you know? My brilliant, sweet little sister.”

“Hey I’m not so little compared to you. Our brother sure but...”

Kurara smiled. “You know what I meant.”

“Where will you go?”

She turned her attention to the window before them. The setting sun made the landscape outside take on a pink, golden glow, the sky awash with streaks of purple. It was like something out of a professional photographers’ gallery. She let a breath out slowly, she was hard pressed to imagine anywhere as beautiful as Wakana. 

“Somewhere we can blend in. Preferably a place with no extradition.” She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head back to look at the textured ceiling. “Do you know of a place that fits that description?”

“Not exactly, but I think I have an idea that may work.”

::: ::: :::

Bucky grinned widely at her as she approached the stairs that that lead to the Citadel. Dress in his ceremonial tunic and sash, clean shaven and sporting a new hair style, he looked he’d stepped from the pages of Vogue. He was rather dashing in the rich navy blue fabric that had been interwoven with tribal art significant to the Merchant Tribe of which he was marrying into.

A week ago, there had been a lot of shocked faces and vocal opposition to Shuri’s innocent proposal of how they could stay safe.

None more so than James himself.

“You want to marry me?”

Kurara regarded him with a coy look. “You don’t want to marry me?”

He huffed and gaped at her while Steve looked on in amusement. Only to look away in nonchalance when Bucky turned to him for help. Natasha had elbowed him for making fun of Bucky’s flustered state.

Kurara knew he wouldn’t like Shuri’s idea, so when she brought it to him, she made sure to do it where he’d be hard pressed to say no and also to prove to him that she meant it. It meant she had to bring it up publicly or at least with an audience. 

“I don’t want you to choose this way because you want to try to protect me.” He took her hands in his and offered her a pleading look with his sincerest baby blues. Their clear intensity were very often her undoing. But in this case, his focus on her solidified her decision.

She pulled one hand free and thumbed his cheek. “With my multiracial heritage we will meet with opposition as a couple wherever we go. I can choose the kind of life I want, James. I choose to spend it with you. I’m sure about what I want. The question is, are you sure you feel the same about me? And I’d like to add this since you like to frequently rib Steve about it, neither of you are getting any younger, so why are we waiting?”

Natasha couldn’t keep a straight face after that and Steve turned red to the tips of his ears at her musical laughter. Her humour appeared contagious however and they soon shared warm smiles despite his embarrassment.

“Good point.” Bucky conceded with a twitching smile, catching his best friend’s eye. He looked at her again and gave her his answer with a kiss that made her forget where she was. And when he raised his head to release her lips, she was breathless and starry-eyed. He neared again and bowed with his forehead pressed tenderly against hers, their noses lightly touching. 

She could stay in moments like this forever.

He loved to nuzzle her face, her neck, almost like he was sniffling her and rubbing his skin to hers, scenting like a real wolf. She giggled against his bristles.

“The scruff has to go,” she said firmly.

“Yes, dear,” he said with put upon indulgence.

He got a jab in the ribs for his teasing. What was she going to do with this man. He was a playful, wonderful balance between boy and gentleman, prankster and serious soldier. He had so many delicate layers to his psyche but at his core he was so very simply motivated. He loved fiercely and his devotion was unwavering. And in return, what he craved and suffered so long without was unconditional love. Acceptance of the man he was, broken but mending, scarred but not defeated, his soul stained but striving diligently to atone for acts beyond his control. In her Shinto belief, each person was fundamentally good, but they could be corrupted. He had been and manipulated and forced to do terrible things, but now that he was free and she saw the goodness in him. The gentleness and warmth of his heart.

Admiring him now as she waited for her father and grandfather to reach her side, she readied herself for the ceremony with a steadying breath. There was nothing to fear. 

“Who presents this woman?”

“I, W’Zuan of the Merchant Tribe and I, Masashi Noguchi, her father.”

Kurara beamed at her father. While they had begun the recovery effort, she had contacted him to help. Also because she had not had a chance to fully explain things to him about what she’d learned in Wakanda. Now that she was acknowledging her heritage, she was welcome to invite him, using her family influence to approve his visitor status. It has been terrifying, sharing the truth with him. She was concerned that she’d kept it a secret from him. Knowing how much he had loved her mother. And she had never kept secrets of a personal nature from him before. For all of her childhood it has been the two of them against the world. Not many where willing to embrace a little girl of African descent belonging to a Japanese single-parent. Until she’d found her calling in medicine, she’d never felt she fit in anywhere. It meant the world to her to have him approve of her choice in James for a husband. And she felt grateful and so loved to know that he didn’t hold it against her for not sharing the truth about her mother right away.

“Who claims her?”

James had been uncomfortable with the archaic elements of the ceremony but respected the traditions. “I, James Buchanan Barnes, son of George Martin Barnes, do claim her.”

A priest bound their wrists together with silver chords of vibranium. It would be theirs forever, a symbol of their commitment to remain united, unbroken.

His Highness put his hand, bearing the ring of the Black Panther family over their joined ones. “I, King T’Challa, do bless this union. May your days be many, your harvests plentiful and your children strong.”

“Now let’s eat,” Shuri broke in, “I’m starving.”

T’Challa laughed. “I thought you were going to complain about the corset again.”

Shuri stuck her tongue out at him. “Everybody knows how I feel about that already.”

“Yes, we do,” her mother added. “Now please try to behave like the royalty you are,” she said for only Shuri to hear.

“Yes, mother,” she said in a grumble. “I don’t know why everyone must be given the impression that we never have any fun. We’re normal.”

“The mantle of responsibility, little sister,” T’Challa reminded her.

“Yes, your job, not mine. Come, I’ll show you how you’re supposed to get out of that,” she said putting her hand on Kurara’s wrist

Bucky wriggled his fingers and then waved his freed hand in her face. “Double jointed thumbs.”

Shuri have him an open mouthed look. “You’re supposed to stay joined until the tent ceremony. Now your union will be cursed!”

Bucky paled. Shuri tried to stay aghast but she couldn’t when Kurara started to frown in concern. 

“I’m kidding,” she said unable to contain herself.

T’Challa put a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “They tie the cord in such a way that you shift your wrists in opposite directions and the knot remains in tact but the cord loosens. Our ancestors realised that it was very inconvenient to remain bound and unable to get free without invoking superstition. So they used a new method of tying. You would have seen it, if you’d been less preoccupied by staring at your new wife.”

Bucky laughed. “Never going to happen.”

“Where have all your survival instincts gone, Ookami-kun?”

Bucky preened under the endearment. “You’re my priority now.”

“I love you,” Kurara said kissing him.

Bucky buried his fingers into her thick ebony hair and entrapped her close. He nuzzled her nose, the shell of her ear and down her throat. His attention sent shivers and small electrical impulses across every nerve ending under her skin. There was an explosion of erratic fireworks in her brain and her heart. How was she ever supposed to survive him?

“Hey, save it for the tent ceremony!” Shuri yelled from where she was heaping her plate at the well laden food table.

They had the grace to look shy over their intense PDA but James was not apologetic. He gave her a smug grin soon after. Shuri just grinned widely at them both and then continued on her hunt for treats.

Steve clapped Bucky on the shoulder. “Congratulations to you both.”

“So are you going to man up?”

With a nervous gesture, Steve ran his fingers over his hair at the nape of his neck. “Ah, we sort of opted for a similar thing a couple weeks ago. Kind of impossible to make it official any other way, being fugitives of the law.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“You know, Nat. She’s not big on crowds or fanfare.”

The woman in question materialised from who knew where and threaded her arm around Steve’s waist and casually kissed his cheek. “Be honest. You were worried I’d say no and didn’t want any witnesses. For someone so smart, he’s not always the brightest.”

“Nah, all the attention that Cap gets he’s just still just skinny Steve under it all. More hang ups than you can wave a stick at. Also beautiful woman tend to stupefy him.”

“I think I handle myself just fine.”

“Sure you do.”

Kurara was fairly sure they were now traversing into sexual innuendos and it would only escalate from there. 

“Congratulations, Steve, Natasha. I believe you both make each other stronger and you’re an impressive team. Where will you go now?” she interjected before Steve could make a counterclaim to Bucky’s teasing.

“I have a place in Malta, that’s off the grid and there’s an uninhabited island a short kayak trip away to park the Quinjet,” Natasha said. 

“You’ve never mentioned Malta before.”

“Because I only ever planned for us to stay there, Steve.”

“What about Sam?” Steve asked, his face marred with mild hurt and concern.

Kurara tugged Bucky away not wanting to intrude on what was to be sure an private and lengthy conversation.

“So we circumvented the Tribal council booting me off the continent with my naturalisation through bonding, what’s the blowback on that?” Bucky asked quietly.

With his acceptance, they’d moved quickly. Not wanting to give the River Tribe a chance to enforce the council’s ruling. They spoke to her grandfather and gained his support before making the request official before T’Challa. He had no argument against them and heartily congratulated Bucky on his choice, before the man had to confess that it was Kurara who had asked him. He’d never looked so embarrassed.

“Will you be happy living in the Embassy?”

“We’ll be living in California, what’s not to like?”

As his sister, and daughter of several cultures, T’Challa had presumed to appoint her Ambassador of Wakanda to his new Embassy in Oaklands, California. Also part of Shuri’s idea, he happily informed them. 

Kurara cupped his face, searching his eyes. “You know what I mean. Your diplomatic status will provide some protection but we both know that there are plenty of people in our world that have no problem ignoring the rules of engagement.”

He took her wrists and interlocked their fingers. His kissed her lips lightly and met her gaze. “I’m happy with you. Here or anywhere. Aside from your political role, you’ll get to work in holistic therapy and I’ll get to work with materials and tech I’ve never even dreamed of. I was always good at research and tinkering around and now Shuri’s given me the chance to use it. Steve’s good at mechanical stuff and I was always good at figuring out code and patterns. I like puzzling things out.”

He kissed her fingers. “I used to be afraid of change and the unknown. I was terrified to join the war effort, but I had to because I didn’t want them to have to start using men like Steve because men like me didn’t step up. I stopped being afraid when I met you.”

“You give me too much credit. I admire the strength you have, James. This fierce will that drives you. If you’ve set your mind on something, nothing will stop you. Must be a trait in men from Brooklyn. Steve has a similar stubbornness.”

“Why does it sound like you don’t fully approve.”

“It’s that same stubbornness that often lands you in trouble.”

Bucky smiled. “But I have you to help curb that impulse away from trouble.”

Kurara snorted lightly. “Somehow I doubt that, but I don’t love you any less.”

“Shall we go join the festivities, Mrs. Barnes?”

“Actually I was hoping to use Mrs. Noguchi-Barnes.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Sounds like a fashion label.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” she parried. “I happen to have famous artists in my ancestry.

He crushed her in a hug, using his human arm to gauge his strength. “You want to pursue design in your down time, I would be all for it but it’d mean I’d be seeing even less of you than I do now.”

Kurara wriggled free of his grip and danced away from him. “You’ll be seeing plenty enough later,” she called back with a teasing laugh, her eyes alight with mischief.

Bucky growled, proving the Wolf she called him and gave chase. He swept her over his shoulder. He passed Shuri on his way toward the direction leading out of the Citadel. “Which way was the tent again.”

Shuri pointed in a Eastward direction, she had a honey cake stuffed in her mouth and two more on her plate. “Hey, you’re supposed to wait for the March,” she yelled after them, crumbs covering her lips. When her words fell on deaf ears, she waved them away. Crazy kids, they were already breaking tradition anyway, why not start another new one and leave newlyweds to themselves to do as they please.


	6. We Survive On Hope

Bucky almost didn’t manage to carry her all the way she was wriggling and struggling. When they finally burst through the tent flap, he set her on her feet, steadying her when he realised she’d gotten entangled in the draping fabric of her layered sari-like dress.

When she looked up at him, she glared like a furious harpy. He was confused, he had thought her squirming was just for show, he hadn’t heard much vocal protesting from her on their way over.

She made to charge past him but he snagged her around the waist and pulled her back against his chest. He folded one arm across hers to keep her from throttling him and tried to reason her back.

“Okay, just hang on a minute. Talk to me?”

“Like you talked to me?” she growled at him, trying to wrench free of his grip. 

In the hope that she would at least stay and speak to him now, he let her go and she whirled on him. She pushed him back hard, he didn’t stumble but he had to step back to go with her force. 

“It’s been a long day, I’m tired of playing a role for everyone else,” he explained with his hands up in a placating gesture. “According to what J’Baku said to me, these things can carry on till dawn. Is it wrong that I want to be just a little about us? I know they want a reason for a celebration, that they even deserve one but the crowds are not me, not anymore, not for a long time.”

He watched her deflate in her anger and he felt remorse for taking her from the festivities when he saw her tremble in distress. 

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you, in taking you away like that. I didn’t think it through,” he offered in apology. He ran a wary hand through his newly shortened hair, and messed up the styling Nakiya had painstakingly created through all his mopey fussing. After an hour of playing with spray, blow drying, moulding wax and more spray, they finally got his cow lick under control and a style that got his smile of approval.

“My father is out there and these are not his people,” she said by way of explanation. “I feel guilty about how little I considered him in all of this; helping you, learning of my mother’s family, wanting to marry you. Now he’s out there and...”

“If it’s any consolation, he was speaking to the Queen Mother when I last saw him.” He never thought about it before but it was something of a habit. He always surveyed for danger and where the people he cared about where, how far he was from them. How many people were between them, how long it would take to effect a rescue and escape if it was needed. In loving Kurara, his protection extended to her family too. It gave him a moment’s pause in his mind that he considered her family his. When had that happened? 

Kurara smiled through the tears in her eyes. She knew her father wanted to learn about N’Yumi as much as she had. It would help to discover that information from a closer source than her maternal grandfather. 

“Don’t cry, Kurara,” he said softly, drawing her close.

She planted her face against his tunic and let the tears fall. She wasn’t an outwardly expressive person. She didn’t share her emotions easily, but he broke down her barriers. It hadn’t taken him all that long and now it was as though she never had any defense against him.

“You’re thinking hard, I can feel it,” he said against her hair.

She could feel the rumble in his chest as he spoke, against her cheek and his scent and his hand rubbing in a soothing motion over the small of her back caused the words to come spilling out of her. “I had this irrational thought of becoming one of my research statistics. One of my thesis into the impact of emotional behaviour on physical healing, the results proved how detrimental some relationships can be on recovery. Women and men that married and then discovered their romance has been a temporary fantasy, that the person they fell in love with wasn’t real. Just a facade created out of conquest. They became the submissive party in a oppressive relationship where they had no voice or respect. Recovery from injury, illness or surgery took infinitely longer and more often than not, revealed reoccurring illness. For a moment I felt out of control. You know I have control issues. You struggle with the same. We try to balance out the chaotic pressures with order and routine. You didn’t have free choice for most of your life and I was bullied because I didn’t have a mother or even know who she was. I’m not excusing my reaction but I’m sharing how it made me feel.”

Bucky stepped away. He let her go completely. He looked anguished. He pulled at his already ruffled hair and she knew she wanted to stop him before he started pacing. “I didn’t want to make you feel that. I’m really sorry,” he said, clearly contrite and upset but unable to look at her.

“Hey, James, look at me.” She caught his artificial hand that was the only one not making agitated motions in his hair and wouldn’t require her to pull at him or stand on her toes to retrieve it. Threading her fingers between his surprisingly pliant ones, she waited for him to meet her gaze. “I was angry but you explained yourself and my reaction wasn’t any better. I didn’t consider how you felt being the center focus of a crowd and I didn’t let you talk about it either. I was just going to walk out. That’s not who I want to be. I never want to walk out on you. And certainly not over something so trivial. I think we’ve both been reactive here.” 

He exhaled audibly. She watched the tension in his body release and the frequent bobbing in his throat slowed. It was then that she allowed her gaze to shift and she caught sight of the bed behind him, the area surrounded by lanterns and the bed cover decorated with scattered wildflowers and curtained by sheer scarlet netting. She felt a blush start at her chest and cover her face.

Bucky moved closer and touched her cheek with the back of his warm fingers in a gentle caress. “We rushed everything to stay together, we don’t have to rush this. We won’t do anything you’re not ready for.”

Kurara took his hand a pressed a kiss to his palm. She held his fingers, committing every callus and fine hair to memory; the shape and warmth of his fingertips, the lines on his palm. The other hand had been made as a balanced replica but it lacked the detailed character and warmth of his human hand. And although it moved and obeyed his every command, it was just a machine, it wasn’t truly a part of him. Just a tool. He didn’t need it. He was whole to her without it. 

He sensed where her thoughts had gone from where her eyes had briefly flickered and reached inside his tunic. He struggled with a mechanism where the arm base rested against his shoulder blade and there was a small hiss of released air and a series of clicking noises. Then he was shucking off his tunic altogether.

Bare-chested, the arm remained in the sleeve of his tunic. He twitched a smirk to cover his discomfort of having something so cumbersome to deal with when he was trying to set a romantic mood. “Maybe I should have taken the top off first.” Any other thought died at the look on her face and her touch, as she ran her hands over his chest to rest on his shoulders, and more importantly, the stump of where his arm once was, long ago.

The skin there was sensitive, layers upon layers of scar tissue. It drove him near crazy in the cold, and it itched like a hive that just wouldn’t go away in the heat. Under her touch it seemed to come alive in a different way, a way that set his blood racing and he could do nothing to stop the way his body was responding to her, the arousal that had been simmering before, dialed up to a raging inferno. He leaned down to kiss her hungrily, passionately, desperately. The plan was sweet distraction, hoping the intensity of his plunder of her mouth would keep her from discovering the state of his pants.

Kurara fell away from his lips with a gasp. Her heart all but ready to leap out of her chest. “Some of us... need more oxygen than others... apparently.”

Bucky felt proud of his efforts till he noticed where her eyes had tracked. The new redness high on her cheeks told him she’d noticed his readiness.

“I hope you’re flattered and not freaked out,” he said with a touch of embarrassment. After all he had promised her they would go slow. Wait a bit longer if she wasn’t ready to take their intimacy further. After all they’d never actually lost clothing in a non professional capacity before now. “We really don’t have to consummate... why did I have to say that word?” he grumbled. He scratched at his stump and felt sheepish when she tapped his hand away.

“Don’t do that... and I am flattered,” she said as she pressed against him boldly. “I’m not a virgin and I know you probably aren’t either. We’ve talking about a lot of things, during our sessions and since we started seeing each other. You’ve spoken about your past before the war and the dreams you had of what your life could have been. We are moving at our own pace and while there hasn’t been anyone for either of us for a very long time, I know what we both want.”

“And what’s that?” he asked, his voice deeper and more breathless than normal.

Her smile was sexy when she stroked his arm and shoulder again. “We both want sex to be more than something physical. We want connection on an emotional and an intellectual level. We crave it. And you can’t have that without trust. Neither of us trust easily, but I trust you, my White Wolf. I pledged by life to yours, James Barnes. You are the husband I chose and I want to make this connection with you.”

Bucky didn’t have words. He wasn’t a man of many words when he could think normally but he knew how to act. He caught her around the waist and pulled her with him. They fell through the curtains and she lay sprawled comfortably over him. He shifted his fingers through her hair and gently urged her face to his. He kissed her over and over again until their hands grew as restless as the sensations coursing through them both, spilling over to act on the need they both desired to make the deepest union possible between two souls.

Breathless, exhausted but wonderfully sated, they lay entangled watching the light fade through the fabric of the tent. The sun was setting. The feast should be winding to a close.

“Do you think Shuri told them where we went?” she mused quietly, her fingers lightly carding through the spattering of hair on his chest.

“I don’t doubt a few of them figured it out anyway, if she didn’t. But it’s Shuri we’re talking about. I’m sure all the people who would miss us already know by now.”

She could feel him smiling into her hair and she poked him in the ribs. “Stop with the smug.”

“I’m not smug,” he protested. “I’m happy.”

Kurara smiled, contented that he was happy. She closed her eyes and kissed his chest. She put a hand over his heart. It was comforting to the feel of the steady rise and fall with each breath he took. This is love. Desiring the wellbeing of the person you cared about most in the world and putting their needs before your own.

She has his protection and he has hers. Their future may be uncertain. But no one’s tomorrow is guaranteed. She would give him her all today, and every day she had.

They had been given the gift of finding each other. She would treasure it the rest of her days.


End file.
